Close Protection, Aerial Surveillance, and a Spy Ship in Suva — Last Week in the Pacific
In Fiji, China’s Defence Attaché Senior Colonel Zhang Yu hosted the crew and engineers of the RFNS Kacau, a multirole hydrographic survey ship donated to the Fijian navy in 2019, to mark the vessel’s return to operational status.
Zhang announced additional Chinese support over the coming months to sustain the vessel.
Donated platforms create recurring sustainment requirements, and Beijing now owns that relationship—maintaining a standing channel to the Fijian navy and to the ship that maps Fiji’s maritime domain.
Summary of PRC Activity
China’s Police Liaison Teams (CPLTs) in the Solomon Islands completed a training course; its counterpart in Vanuatu made a donation. The Chinese embassy in Honiara funded two constituency-level development packages. In Samoa, the ambassador’s spouse took the Prime Minister’s wife and more than a dozen ministerial spouses on a tour of a Chinese agricultural aid project.
(Source: PRC Embassy in Vanuatu)
This Week’s Big Themes:
Police Training for the Solomons and Drones for Vanuatu
The China Police Liaison Team in the Solomon Islands completed a three-week course for 30 officers of the RSIPF’s Close Personnel Protection Department. The curriculum covered VIP protection, close-quarters confrontation, ground control, restraint tactics, and emergency response, progressing from drills to force-on-force exercises. Chinese instructors now train the officers who guard the Solomon Islands’ political leadership.
The CPLT also rotated: on 10 August, the RSIPF farewelled four team members at Rove police headquarters after a six-month deployment. Acting Commissioner James Aitorea thanked them, and CPLT Commissioner Bai Haitao and departing Inspector Wang Yang spoke.
In Vanuatu, the embassy donated drones to Vanuatu Correctional Services on 14 August. China’s Police Expert Team then trained ten correctional officers from Port Vila, Santo, and Tanna to fly them. The embassy described the drones as tools for full-coverage aerial surveillance over correctional farms. China has now donated aerial surveillance equipment to two Pacific security services in three months—the Vanuatu package follows a June donation to Fiji’s police that included a drone. In both cases, the stated use is narrow and the capability is not.
Supporting Events
- Solomon Islands: CPLT Completes Close Protection Training for RSIPF
- Solomon Islands: RSIPF Farewells Four CPLT Officers
- Vanuatu: Drone Donation and Training for Correctional Services
Development Leads in Samoa and the Solomon Islands
In the Solomon Islands, the Chinese embassy delivered two constituency-level packages through the Rural Sustainable Development Program. Fishermen in Sigana and Vasole, in Gao-Bugotu constituency, received 15 paddle canoes and a solar-powered deep freezer. In East Central Guadalcanal, the embassy funded roughly US$12,000 for a community-led sanitation project.
In Samoa, Madam Li Wenjun, spouse of Ambassador Fei Mingxing, organized a visit to the Samoa-China Agricultural Technical Aid Project demonstration farm, bringing Samoa’s First Lady and about a dozen spouses of cabinet and associate ministers. Chinese agricultural experts briefed the group on poultry, animal rearing, vegetable, and mushroom production, and each guest left with a basket of fresh produce. The visit fits a pattern this monitor has tracked across the region: ambassadorial spouses run parallel diplomatic programming aimed at cabinet-level partners. Madame Lin Ying, spouse of China’s Ambassador to Vanuatu, hosted Vanuatu’s First Lady and senior officials’ partners on a similar outing in March.
Supporting Events
- Solomon Islands: Canoe and Freezer Donation to Gao-Bugotu Constituency
- Solomon Islands: Sanitation Funding for East Central Guadalcanal Constituency
- Samoa: Madam Li Leads Ministerial Spouses to SCATAP Farm
* The PRC Pacific Embassies Monitor provides systematic, open-source tracking of Beijing’s public diplomatic activities across the nine Pacific Island Countries hosting Chinese missions. The monitor captures official embassy social media and website posts, supplemented by local sources, to offer a weekly structured intelligence report that bridges critical information gaps on regional engagement.